Germy wall and a healthy sense of humor

Originally published February 10, 2015 at 7:47 pm
Updated June 8, 2015 at 2:52 pm

Jean Yang gets a helping hand from Ankur Dhar adding another wad to the Gum Wall in Post Alley. Both are seniors at University of California in Berkeley visiting with more friends from college who read about the tourist attraction in a guide book. (Alan Berner / The Seattle Times)

It’s a form of people’s participatory art apparently started by improv Market Theatre-goers in the early 1990s, who thought better of sticking their gum under seats and started leaving it on the brick wall outside.

Over the years it’s grown vertically, horizontally and now is spreading to the wall on the west side of the alley, with gum stuck to the signs requesting “No Gum This Side, Thank You.”